Black Youth Project is deeply embedded in the Chicago community. Each summer and throughout the academic year, we host extra-curricular programming with Black and Brown youth in the Chicagoland area to encourage student activism, self-sufficiency, and using data to solve problems facing communities of color.
Here is a brief description of our current programs:
Black Life Everywhere
Black Life Everywhere (BLE) works with creators to preserve and present nuanced representations that are expressive of Black life. We see music, film, animation, photography, poetry, interviews and writing as integral to how we communicate and tell stories. For us, these varying forms of expression are legitimate and necessary instruments to produce freedom dreaming that moves us towards Black liberation. BLE seeks to amplify Black creative voices that center the lives, histories, and well being of the Black communities we engage. Our goal is to show the nuance, beauty, challenges, and joy that constitute Black Life Everywhere, today.
The GenForward Survey
The GenForward Survey is the first of its kind—a nationally representative survey that pays special attention to how race and ethnicity shape how young adults, both Millennials and Gen Z-ers, experience and think about the world. Beyond voting, the most consistent method for monitoring the pulse of the public is the use of surveys and polling. The reporting of statistics on what percentage of Americans support or oppose policies works to insert the voice of the public into public policy discussions. Unfortunately, because of cost and interest, the voices of young Americans, especially young Americans of color, are routinely absent in public opinion polls. The GenForward Survey project is housed at the University of Chicago. Interviews for the survey are conducted with a representative sample from GenForward®, a nationally representative survey panel of adults ages 18-40.